So "moving forward" the Story Group will try to make everything canon, and on the same level of canon, thus equality between all video games, books, comics, television shows and films.

Does this mean we can expect a lot less Star Wars stories? If everything has to fit together, I would imagine they won't want to do a whole lot, especially since the films and tv shows will be getting priority._________________
"I believe toys resonate with us as humans, we can hold them them, it's tactile, real! They are totems for our extended beliefs and imaginations. A fetish for ideas that hold as much interest and passion as old religious relics for some. We display them in our homes. They show who we are. They are signals for similar thinking people. A way we connect with each other...and I guess thats why I do toys. That connection." -Ashley Wood

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:57 am

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Taral-DLOSMaster

Joined: 23 Nov 2010Posts: 1743Location: Ontario, Canada

^^ I think there probably will be fewer Star Wars stories in the coming years. Marvel will put out Star Wars comics, but probably not many at once (if I had to make a prediction, I'd say they'd have one ongoing, an Episode VII prelude, an Episode VII adaptation, and some miniseries on occasion). We've seen numerous novel cancellations recently, and none announced. I think the only pending novels left are Maul: Lockdown and Honor Among Thieves.

We'll see tie-ins to Rebels. We'll probably also see novelizations of the new movies.

So "moving forward" the Story Group will try to make everything canon, and on the same level of canon, thus equality between all video games, books, comics, television shows and films.

Does this mean we can expect a lot less Star Wars stories? If everything has to fit together, I would imagine they won't want to do a whole lot, especially since the films and tv shows will be getting priority.

Less material wouldn't surprise me. The major issue, though, would be the already existing material. Are they going to incorporate some of it or none of it?

Not ceratin, Taral, but Kevin Hearne's Luke book seems to still be going forward.

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:03 pm

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Darth SkuldrenModerator

Joined: 04 Feb 2008Posts: 6580Location: Missouri

Yeah, Kevin was still working on that book as of a month or so ago._________________
"I believe toys resonate with us as humans, we can hold them them, it's tactile, real! They are totems for our extended beliefs and imaginations. A fetish for ideas that hold as much interest and passion as old religious relics for some. We display them in our homes. They show who we are. They are signals for similar thinking people. A way we connect with each other...and I guess thats why I do toys. That connection." -Ashley Wood

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:44 pm

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6957Location: Sailing into the unknown

Darth Skuldren wrote:

So "moving forward" the Story Group will try to make everything canon, and on the same level of canon, thus equality between all video games, books, comics, television shows and films.

Does this mean we can expect a lot less Star Wars stories? If everything has to fit together, I would imagine they won't want to do a whole lot, especially since the films and tv shows will be getting priority.

Thank the Force. No more of this "levels of canon" crap. I would love if they could somehow reconcile all or much of the existing canon with the post-Episode VII canon, but that might be too much to hope for. I've gotta say, as much as I disliked the idea of Disney owning Star Wars initially, this decision alone shows more professionalism than Lucas ever had._________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 5:29 am

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DarthMRNKnight

Joined: 20 Jul 2011Posts: 299

Darth Skuldren wrote:

So "moving forward" the Story Group will try to make everything canon, and on the same level of canon, thus equality between all video games, books, comics, television shows and films.

Does this mean we can expect a lot less Star Wars stories? If everything has to fit together, I would imagine they won't want to do a whole lot, especially since the films and tv shows will be getting priority.

Sounds like a lot to hope for IMO.

The system we had was already the best blend of corporate money-grubbing and artistic integrity we could reasonably hope for. Nothing I've heard of Disney makes me think they will be better than LucasFilm about this. Continuity costs money, and more importantly, causes publishing delays that are very likely unacceptable. Why would future installments incur those costs in order to stay consistent with what came before? Maybe for a while, but ten years from now, are we really supposed to expect some comic book to conform completely to one of the Ep. 7 tie-ins? Hah!

I also laugh at Leland's one canon assertion. As if one of the movies will bend over backwards to accommodate some comic book, novel or game, any more than they have in the past. The money is simply too big for that to realistically happen.

This is nothing but lip service, advertising the system we were supposed to have already as something new and revolutionary. There is no reason to think it will be any different in practice._________________I discuss to learn, not to win. Then again, learning enough tends to translate to victory in the end anyway.

Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 7:36 pm

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WerehunterKnight

Joined: 08 Apr 2011Posts: 362

Darth Skuldren wrote:

So "moving forward" the Story Group will try to make everything canon, and on the same level of canon, thus equality between all video games, books, comics, television shows and films.

It will never happen. At least not unless Disney produces everything in house. With the number of companies involved it will be next to impossible for that to happen. They can try, but I don't have high hopes. Even with only one company involved it's hard to accomplish with that many mediums.

Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 12:28 pm

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Darth SkuldrenModerator

Joined: 04 Feb 2008Posts: 6580Location: Missouri

If you're talking one movie a year, one book a year, and one comic a month, it's doable._________________
"I believe toys resonate with us as humans, we can hold them them, it's tactile, real! They are totems for our extended beliefs and imaginations. A fetish for ideas that hold as much interest and passion as old religious relics for some. We display them in our homes. They show who we are. They are signals for similar thinking people. A way we connect with each other...and I guess thats why I do toys. That connection." -Ashley Wood

Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 12:40 pm

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Taral-DLOSMaster

Joined: 23 Nov 2010Posts: 1743Location: Ontario, Canada

Darth Skuldren wrote:

If you're talking one movie a year, one book a year, and one comic a month, it's doable.

Especially given that some of the comics, at least one novel, and potentially one video game (if any) will tie directly into the movie. So really, one novel (plus one tie-in novel), twelve comics (4-6 of which are tie-ins), and one video game isn't too bad._________________"I'm...from Earth."

Of course, maybe their plan is to only do tie-in stuff. No expanded universe whatsoever._________________
"I believe toys resonate with us as humans, we can hold them them, it's tactile, real! They are totems for our extended beliefs and imaginations. A fetish for ideas that hold as much interest and passion as old religious relics for some. We display them in our homes. They show who we are. They are signals for similar thinking people. A way we connect with each other...and I guess thats why I do toys. That connection." -Ashley Wood

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 9:35 pm

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DarthMRNKnight

Joined: 20 Jul 2011Posts: 299

I've encountered something of a snag, canon-wise.

As I mentioned a while back, I am off the EU. Which I thought would be easy enough: Just follow the Lucasverse instead. The new movies are based on his work, so even they should fit in pretty easily. But Rebels is problematic. I haven't heard of it being based on GL's work, and indeed some of the news coming in suggests the writers want to accommodate the EU as much as possible, which would not happen in a Lucas production.

Given this apparent licensed fanfic nature of the work, if I were to take Rebels seriously, would that not also require me to buy into the new EU too? Per my arguments for dropping this EU, that would obviously be problematic, for lip service aside, I have no more reason to expect the new to be adhered to any more than the old was. But if I reject the new, I'd logically have to reject Rebels as well.

Now, of course, the obvious tie-breaker is to look at how high-profile the work is. Rebels will be pretty high-profile, and thus pretty safe for as long as it runs. But enough so to constrain Ep. 9 or any spin-offs following it, several years down the line? I'm not so sure.

I just don't know whether to take Rebels seriously or not in my headcanon. And I'm a notorious minimalist when it comes to these things, so just assuming Rebels is kosher for the time being and amend myself as needed doesn't sound like an appealing idea at all._________________I discuss to learn, not to win. Then again, learning enough tends to translate to victory in the end anyway.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 12:19 pm

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6957Location: Sailing into the unknown

One day I will shut up about continuity, I promise, but this recent comment by Dave Filoni got me thinking.

Dave Filoni wrote:

My approach has always been to utilize the Expanded Universe as basically a base of ideas. That was very much how George used it. He would see things like Aayla Secura or Quinlan Vos, and he would say, "Oh, that's neat. Let's use that," but he would never really use them quite in the way that the comic books told the story. So I think that that's completely fair, being the person that had created Star Wars, to go like, "Well, I like that idea, but this is how I would tell the story." That's not too different when you see that sometimes Percival and Galahad are very similar questing knights, and sometimes they're different; they have different names with different spellings. Good stories and storytelling often branch out and have multiple stories. But as you know, a lot of my life for the last 10 years has been discussing that with fans who love the EU, and I don't mind at all. I think the key for me is I never would subtract and tell them that, "Hey, you can't like those stories." If you love those stories, they count for you, and I think that that's great. Who am I? I'm lucky enough to make this show, but I try to give a nod where I can to things I know people will like.

As a fan of Arthurian legend, this got me thinking about why the continuity issues in Star Wars bother me while the don't in Arthurian legend. I think the biggest reason is that each Arthurian author retells the story - each puts their own spin on it, some adding new characters or stories, but the basic story is the same... at least as the story is known up to that point. Each book or series of books written by each author is its own canon.

The situation with Star Wars is very different. Firstly because the EU covered an insane amount of books, video games, comics etc. by multiple authors over 20 years collaborating within one continuity. The Sequel Trilogy is not, as far as we can tell, a retelling of the story told by the EU. It's a bulldoze of the EU with the occasional cherry-picked element. The idea of starting virtually from scratch after eight years of fandom gives me a feeling of burnout in a way that starting a new Arthurian story never does._________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 5:26 pm

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DarthMRNKnight

Joined: 20 Jul 2011Posts: 299

I'm completely ignorant of the RL aspect of Arthurian legend, but I'm still dead sure none of its contributors had any reason to be consistent with each other. SW contributors have had massive reason to be, from the same owners giving them permission to contribute, to a short timespan. There has literally been no reasons for discontinuity other than hubris and cost-efficiency.

So I have in the past and will keep laughing at any attempt to excuse SW canon with basis in traditional myth and legend._________________I discuss to learn, not to win. Then again, learning enough tends to translate to victory in the end anyway.

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:28 pm

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ReepicheepMaster

Joined: 05 Feb 2008Posts: 6957Location: Sailing into the unknown

DarthMRN wrote:

So I have in the past and will keep laughing at any attempt to excuse SW canon with basis in traditional myth and legend.

Yeah, that annoys me to. The situations of Arthurian legend and Star Wars are so dramatically different that it makes little sense to compare them in that way.

None of this is to slam Dave Filoni btw. He has done more for us EU fans than most, and he really understands Star Wars. I could listen to him talk Star Wars for hours._________________
Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Arthurian legend is a series of folk tales that uses a historical trapping. It is told from multiple narratives because historical documentation of it collected those various sources that were disparate, not because they were multiple interpretations of the same story. Then it became a public domain intellectual property to which many author's wrote their own fictional versions, never intending them to be folklore or historical documentation or reflections of each other.

Even as an analogy it fails to say that Parsifal was like Galahad because Seigmund was like Luke Skywalker. In other words just because Luke Skywalker is based on the heroic knight archetype in Arthur Star Wars is not a mythological entity like Arthur because there are no other versions of the "star wars story" where someone else fulfills the same role as Luke Skywalker. In every version the Star Wars story is the same and the versions where it is not have never been considered canonical.

What Dave really wants is to tell his own version and to claim that it is justifiable within the framework that George created, when it isn't. Lucas is the creator, he gets to make his own version, even if it contradicts everyone else's. Until now no one else was ever allowed to do that, they had to make their stories consistent with each other._________________The absurd man thus catches sight of a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given, and beyond which all is collapse and nothingness. He can then decide to accept such a universe and draw from it his strength, his refusal to hope, and the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation.